Mangrove Jack's Craft Series yeast

[NorfolkBrew]

I made a batch of blackberry stout last week and had major problems with the fermentation, with it grinding to a halt after about 2 days and only going from 1.040 to 1.020. Having checked a number of possibilities, adding more nutrient, more yeast, agitating (didn't need to increase the temperature which is a problem we probably all had last week!) and adding sugar, I came to the conclusion that it was the yeast, I was using Mangrove Jack's Craft Series M-51.

This was confirmed in a chat with the 'guru of the grain' in my local homebrew shop who said most microbreweries he supplies buy safbrew packs from him, saying that the craft series stuff is a bit hit and miss.

Has anyone else had a problem with this yeast manufacturer? It's a shame as this brand is relatively expensive and it's really put me off using it

 

[MyQul]

Are you sure it was called M-51? non of the MJ yeasts (new or old/rebranded) are called M-51.Did you mean M-15?

 

[NorfolkBrew]

Oh, yes - typing error. it is indeed M-15!

 

[MickDundee]

I've only used their California Lager yeast and I thought it was fab! Massive attenuation and nice and crisp. Sticks to the bottom of bottles like cement too!

 

[MyQul]

M-15 Empire Ale yeast, is M-03 Dark Ale yeast rebranded, I've also read their slightly different too but wether this is true or not, I'm not sure. Anyhoo, both have low to medium attenuation of about 65% (from what I've read on other forums). So that your 'problem' right there. But putting your figures into a calc you've only got 49% attenuation which quite low but it may be supposed to be that low. I havent read any official attenuation firgures for the strain. On the site it says "Attenuation: High" which is complete BS
I used this yeast in it's M-03 Dark Ale incarnation but being aware of it attenuation level I added some Golden Syrup to my bitter recipe to dry things out a bit and it came out at 71% and a very nice bitter

 

[MyQul]

I've only used their California Lager yeast and I thought it was fab! Massive attenuation and nice and crisp. Sticks to the bottom of bottles like cement too!

I'm eyeing up some sort of Steam Beer yeast for future brews. Either the MJ dried one (although the attenion seems a bit high for what I want) or one of the liquid ones

 

[MickDundee]

I'm eyeing up some sort of Steam Beer yeast for future brews. Either the MJ dried one (although the attenion seems a bit high for what I want) or one of the liquid ones

Yeah I would have preferred a bit more body in my steam beer, although I did turn out beautifully (and I only have 2 bottles left!!!). If I re-do it I'll mash higher to see if it does the trick!

The next time I use that yeast will be a dry American pseudo lager (American/Japanese really since I'm using rice as an adjunct instead of corn and Sorachi Ace as I believe that's what they use in Saporro) so I won't need to worry about extra body (probably 3 brews time but I'm getting the Greg Hughes book for my birthday so that might change my planned brews around a bit)

 

[jceg316]

I'm brewing an English IPA today and have M15 to go in. The pack states something like 75% attenuation. I do believe @MyQul you warned me about the low attenuation before, but was planning on increasing the temperature over time to help the yeast out.

As I'm just heating the water and haven't even started the mash yet, it's not too late to throw in some candi sugar to the boil if this will help raise the attenuation?

 

[NorfolkBrew]

Thanks for the feedback its interesting to get other people's perspectives on it. I added extra dextrose to help things along but it still came out under par so I'm less than impressed with this one. jceg316 let us know how yours turns out!

 

[MyQul]

I'm brewing an English IPA today and have M15 to go in. The pack states something like 75% attenuation. I do believe @MyQul you warned me about the low attenuation before, but was planning on increasing the temperature over time to help the yeast out.

As I'm just heating the water and haven't even started the mash yet, it's not too late to throw in some candi sugar to the boil if this will help raise the attenuation?

Might be a good idea to do so. I used 10% (400g) of Golden syrup to raise the attenuation. All the information I've read is that M-15 is the same as M03 so without doing something to raise the attention will result in about 65%

 

[MyQul]

Thanks for the feedback its interesting to get other people's perspectives on it. I added extra dextrose to help things along but it still came out under par so I'm less than impressed with this one. jceg316 let us know how yours turns out!

I'm quite surprised then if you added dextrose as well. One thing I've just remebered, is that this strain is quite 'English' and flocctuant so try giving it a rouse. I've used English strains in the past which didn't quite attenuate out fully in the FV because of the flocctuancy and as a consequesce fermentation started up again in the bottle becasue of the agitation of bottling

 

[jceg316]

I'll add in ~600 g of candi sugar in the boil. Thanks for the advice. I'll let you know how it turns out, although this will be conditioning for a while as I'll be adding wood chips for a few weeks once fermentation is complete.

 

[DethApostle]

I've no anecdotal evidence to add for this particular yeast but I've used three different Mangrove Jacks for my last brews (Hefeweisen with M20, Steam Beer with M54 and an Amercian IPA with M44) and have found them to be excellent. The Hefe was a bit 'keen' and exploded everywhere but the other two were much better behaved!

I have a Porter in at the moment but can't for the life of me think which yeast I've used (but it is Mangrove Jacks!)
DA

 

[MyQul]

I've no anecdotal evidence to add for this particular yeast but I've used three different Mangrove Jacks for my last brews (Hefeweisen with M20, Steam Beer with M54 and an Amercian IPA with M44) and have found them to be excellent. The Hefe was a bit 'keen' and exploded everywhere but the other two were much better behaved!

I have a Porter in at the moment but can't for the life of me think which yeast I've used (but it is Mangrove Jacks!)
DA

How was your attenuation with M54? @MickDundee 's was very high around 86% iirc

 

[NorfolkBrew]

I'm quite surprised then if you added dextrose as well. One thing I've just remebered, is that this strain is quite 'English' and flocctuant so try giving it a rouse. I've used English strains in the past which didn't quite attenuate out fully in the FV because of the flocctuancy and as a consequesce fermentation started up again in the bottle becasue of the agitation of bottling

I did give it a stir when I added the extra nutrient and still got no response, even after I added extra yeast the next day. Fingers crossed something will happen in the bottle, although not too much or I'll have a mess to clean up!

Thanks for the tip about English style yeasts that's good to know!

 

[MickDundee]

How was your attenuation with M54? @MickDundee 's was very high around 86% iirc

Wasn't as high as that. 1046 down to 1008 so 5% ABV and 82% attenuation according to Brewers Friend (I was aiming for 1012 to give me 4.6%ABV and 75%)

 

[MyQul]

Wasn't as high as that. 1046 down to 1008 so 5% ABV and 82% attenuation according to Brewers Friend (I was aiming for 1012 to give me 4.6%ABV and 75%)

Not too bad then. I'm wanting it for pseudo lagers and you want a lager dryish. I'd find 75% for possibly a bit low too low. That's the kind of attenuation I'd want in an ale. In that case I'd only need to mash 1C or possibly 2C higher than my normal 66C

I'm definatley convinced about this yeast now :thumb:

 

[Thodd]

I brewed an AG 1 gallon batch of Chocolate Porter which I added West Coast - M44 to. It fermented like crazy and exploded spraying beer a good 1.5 meters up the wall through the airlock.
It did however result in a really clean tasting beer that I was pretty impressed with.

 

[jceg316]

Screwed up my brew a bit today. I usually brew to 25 litres, forgot this was 20 litres and sparged an extra 5 litres of water. I also added some candi sugar but didn't have as much as I thought I did so I only added ~390g.

The OG was 1.061 (should have been 1.071) but will let you know how well it attenuates.

 

[DethApostle]

How was your attenuation with M54? @MickDundee 's was very high around 86% iirc

It was high, the Steam Beer came out around 6.3% (target was ~5.5%) though I can't remember the exact numbers off the top of my head. It was also a very vigorous boil iirc so that will have contributed to a higher OG (and lesser volume) too.

DA